Newtownstewart bank murder kept alive in Drumquin

Posted: 9:22 am April 10, 2012

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Patrick O'Kane Great Grand Son of Catherine O'Kane who was the Licensee of the O'Cahan Arms at the Time of the Northern Bank Murder on June 29th 1871 is pictured with the Cashiers Stool and Counter Top were William Glass was murdered and robbed.

IT was a murder that shocked Ireland and drew the eyes of the world onto the streets of Newtownstewart.

In 1871 Ireland was gripped by the case of the RIC sub-inspector who brutally murdered the bank cashier.

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As Northern Bank in Newtownstewart prepares to close its door for the final time in June, so closes a chapter in one of the most fascinating murder cases Tyrone has ever known.

On August 26 1873, Thomas Hartley Montgomery would be the last man to ever walk the gallows of Omagh Jail. His crime of stabbing bank employee William Glass through the head with the filing spike the cashier used to hold lodged cheques continues to live in infamy.

Glass had been working in the Newtownstewart bank on June 29 1871 when he was brutally murdered, with thousands of pounds taken from the bank’s safe.

Montgomery had been seen leaving the bank just an hour or two before the body was discovered.